Bioactive phenolic compounds from a medicinal lichen, Usnea longissima

Natural products, longissiminone A (1) and longissiminone B (2), were isolated along with a known compound, glutinol (3), from a medicinal lichen, Usnea longissima. The structures of compounds 1 and 2 were determined with the help of spectroscopic studies. Compound 1 was found to possess potent anti-inflammatory activity in a cell-based contemporary assay. Cytotoxicity activity measured by cell viability assay showed 100% viability in the presence of 200 microg/mL conc. of these compounds.     

Growth of Ag-nanoparticles in an aqueous solution and their antimicrobial activities against Gram positive,Gram negative bacterial strains and Candida fungus

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized using Ocimum sanctum (Tulsi) leaves aqueous extract as reducing as well as a capping agent in absence and presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The resulting nanomaterials were characterized by UV–visible spectrophotometer, and transmission electron microscope. The UV–Vis spectroscopy revealed the formation of AgNPs at 400–450 nm. TEM photographs indicate that the truncated triangular silver nanoplates and/or spherical morphology of the AgNPs with an average diameter of 25 nm have been distorted markedly in presence of CTAB. The AgNPs were almost mono disperse in nature. Antimicrobial activities of AgNPs were determined by using two bacteria (Gram positive Staphylococcus aureus MTCC-3160), Gram negative Escherichia coli MTCC-450) and one species of Candida fungus (Candida albicans ATCC 90030) with Kirby-Bauer or disc diffusion method. The zone of inhibition seems extremely good showing a relatively large zone of inhibition in both Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans strains.     

Effect of Prebiotic Galacto-Oligosaccharides on Serum Lipid Profile of Hypercholesterolemics

The present study focused on the role of galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) against the development of hypercholesterolemia. In the current research, GOS synthesized from lactose solution were fed to hypercholesterolemic female Sprague–Dawley rats. Negative control group (G1) was fed on standard basal diet alone. Positive control group (G5) was fed on inulin (154 mg/250 g body weight), while treatment groups G2, G3 and G4 received 110 mg, 154 mg and 198.4 mg/250 g body weight, respectively, of GOS along with high-fat diet for a period of 60 days. Findings from this study revealed that animals belonging to prebiotic GOS (G₂, G₃ and G₄)-fed group showed significantly decreased serum triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and VLDL cholesterol as compared to control group (G₀). The groups which were fed on different doses of GOS revealed a significant reduction in TC, TG, LDL, and VLDL levels and an increase in HDL level corresponding to the reference group that was fed on inulin, while G₁ negative control group revealed increased levels of TC, TG, LDL and VLDL. In contrast to positive control group G₅ (154 mg inulin), all doses of GOS lowered serum TC, TG and LDL-C and raised HDL-C; however, G₄ (198.4 mg) proved to be more effective. Hence, GOS proved to be supportive in preventing hypercholesterolemia leading cause of cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis. This study reported a significant reduction of serum TC, TG and LDL-C in female rats for 60 days as compared to control. Conclusively, GOS were found to be worthless against hypercholesterolemia.     

A Bayesian Assignment Method for Ambiguous Bisulfite Short Reads

DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification critical for normal development and diseases. The determination of genome-wide DNA methylation at single-nucleotide resolution is made possible by sequencing bisulfite treated DNA with next generation high-throughput sequencing. However, aligning bisulfite short reads to a reference genome remains challenging as only a limited proportion of them (around 50–70%) can be aligned uniquely; a significant proportion, known as multireads, are mapped to multiple locations and thus discarded from downstream analyses, causing financial waste and biased methylation inference. To address this issue, we develop a Bayesian model that assigns multireads to their most likely locations based on the posterior probability derived from information hidden in uniquely aligned reads. Analyses of both simulated data and real hairpin bisulfite sequencing data show that our method can effectively assign approximately 70% of the multireads to their best locations with up to 90% accuracy, leading to a significant increase in the overall mapping efficiency. Moreover, the assignment model shows robust performance with low coverage depth, making it particularly attractive considering the prohibitive cost of bisulfite sequencing. Additionally, results show that longer reads help improve the performance of the assignment model. The assignment model is also robust to varying degrees of methylation and varying sequencing error rates. Finally, incorporating prior knowledge on mutation rate and context specific methylation level into the assignment model increases inference accuracy. The assignment model is implemented in the BAM-ABS package and freely available at https://github.com/zhanglabvt/BAM_ABS.     

Retrieved 16S rRNA and nifH sequences reveal co-dominance of Bradyrhizobium and Ensifer (Sinorhizobium) strains in field-collected root nodules of the promiscuous host Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology - In the present study, the relative distribution of endophytic rhizobia in field-collected root nodules of the promiscuous host mung bean was investigated by...